Hi, I’m Nya Weeks and I am a graduate student in the JMP program at SHU.
This week , I took an already posted piece of content and let AI tell me how I can strengthen my content skills. I chose a piece that I knew wasn’t my strongest so that I could really see how helpful this tool would be.
I chose my celebratory Knicks post because the vision I had for the video and what actually was posted, were a little different. I wanted to key in on the fact that 6 months prior to the Knicks winning the championship, I posted a story in which I told them to make sure to bring us home the Larry (championship trophy named after Larry O’Brien). My plan was to use a “That’s So Raven” vision moment, to switch between 6 months ago and the present time (June).
Let’s explore AI’s findings and how I can use them to make this content better.
✳︎
Working with AI instead of against AI
✳︎ Working with AI instead of against AI
First, I asked AI to point out my weaknesses. It immediately told me this caption and style were “amateur” for the style of content I was aiming to produce. This is a screenshot of the time frame between 0:10-0:16 where the text was most prominent in the video.
I completely agree and know that the first time I should have used a more eye-catching font to show that while I’m not an expert creator, I’m also not a rookie.
Outside of this weakness, the others included blown out audio in the first minute, dead screen time during the payoff, not having captions on the video and not having a hook to bring it all together. It wasn’t in my best interest to assume the viewer would get the That’s So Raven reference and understand how that plays into the rest of the video.
AI’s suggestion:
Letterboxed horizontal clips with black bars (0:10–0:16, 1:00–1:03). On a 9:16 feed, this is the single most "amateur" tell — it screams "I didn't re-edit for the platform" and instantly signals lower production value against anything scrolling before/after it.
When comparing it to those who create specifically for the NBA or other sports leagues, AI let me have it and rightfully so. My biggest takeaway was that I need to treat audio as its own entity. Re-recording or layering could have changed the sound and brought in more viewers.
The professionals reframe before editing, which I did get most of these videos from my phone that were already shot horizontally but I understand completely what it meant. They build out title cards and treat audio more carefully than I did. Someone like Mariah Rose, would have shot a better quality video while also focusing her post-production on providing viewers with quality content.
AI’s suggestion:
Your raw material — the emotional arc, the "receipts" from months earlier, the meme timecard, the authentic unscripted tears — is actually a stronger narrative hook than most fan-reaction content gets. The gap is almost entirely in post-production discipline, not storytelling instinct.
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In the future, I will always make sure my audio is my number one. Until graduation, I can make sure to use my Rode wireless mics to make sure I’m capturing quality audio. Next, in post-production, I would make sure to level out the sound, not letting songs or added audio drown out the original.
When it comes to adding effects and text, I won’t rush through choosing them as they are a crucial part of what keeps viewers watching.
Because there weren’t any metrics to base this off of, AI couldn’t give me a complete plan for the future but rather suggested that I make sure to keep up with these analytics to narrow down what would make this piece more cohesive.
AI’s suggestion:
You haven't defined what success looks like for this piece (follower growth? comments? saves/shares as a sports community moment?) — without that, "did it work" and "what to change next time" don't have a clear measuring stick.
